Up and Down Again: Gravity of Earth and Mars Demonstration

1. Up and Down Again:Gravity of Earth and Mars Demonstration By Maxwell D. Peterson 6TH grade Raven School Juneau

2. Ptolemy second century A.D. Alexandrian astronomer, geographer, and mathematician whose initial work, Almagest, gives his theories of planetary motion in detail. His studies were based on the belief that all celestial bodies revolve around the earth Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543 A.D. Polish astronomer who developed the theory opposing the Ptolemaic system, that all the planets, including earth, rotate around a stationary sun.

3. Tycho Brahe 1546-1601 A.D. Danish astronomer who substantiated that a nova was a star. His astronomical observations laid the foundation for Kepler’s laws of planetary motion Galileo Galilei 1564-1642 A.D. Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist, and the first to construct astronomical telescopes. A supporter of Copernicus’s theory that the sun is the center of the universe, his beliefs resulted in his imprisonment and persecution by the Inquisition.

4. Explanation

5. How does gravity work on Mars and Earth? The gravity on Mars is about 1/3 of Earth’s gravity. So therefore, we would weigh much less on Mars. Whatever we drop would drop at a slower rate and whatever we throw would go much farther. The reason for this is Mars has less mass which gives it less gravity. This basically means that Mars is smaller than Earth. That is why earth has more gravity than mars (more mass). When we throw a baseball it won’t go over 30 ft farther than we would want it to. When we dropped something it would just fall and hit the ground at a faster rate. Therefore earth’s gravity is much greater then mars. On earth we never have to deal with any of these problems

6. Mars gravity is 1/3 of Earths

7. Demonstration.

8. The paper air planes are demonstrating the differences of gravity between Earth and Mars. The green plane represents Earth’s gravity so it would basically fly like a normal paper airplane. The orange and white paper planes represent Mars gravity which is much lighter then Earths. You would need 30 more paper air planes on Mars if you wanted the same lift you get on Earth. If you used an 8 ½” x 11” sheet of paper made into a paper air plane and threw it would go way farther than you would want it to. And then you would have to go through all the trouble of taking it back from the Martians.

9. The paper air planes are representing Earths gravity and Mars gravity. Step 2: Plane landings Step 1: throw paper airplane

11. The science board generally

12. Science board header

13. Left side of science board

14. Fun facts

15. Time line

16. Demonstration explanation

17. Sources • http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/destination/mars/quick_facts.php • It is a quick fact page about mars and earth NASA Official: Dave Korsmeyer April 2009 • 2008 world book mars planet mass and density • http://kids.yahoo.com/science/space/article/solarsystem The Major Planets • http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/mars/gravity-on-mars/ • http://athena.cornell.edu/kids/tommy_tt_issue5.html • writer: Thomas J. Wdowiak • The difference in gravity between Mars and Earth. • http://videos.howstuffworks.com/tlc/30727-destination-mars-zero-gravity-exercise-video.htm • source: TlC • http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/education/resources/gravity/5-8_cb1-1.shtml • History of gravity • http://library.thinkquest.org/27585/frameset_intro.html • writers Ed Kao Katie Harris Jesse Lefkowitz • Everything • http://www-scf.usc.edu/~kallos/gravity.htm • writer: Themos Kallos • http://library.thinkquest.org/C003108/funfacts.html • Kristina Peterson • Derron Peterson